This posting of the RF Alumni Research Bulletin includes information on Awards and Opportunities, Online Publications, Internet Spotlight, and Research Tip for November 2009.

The DRC Staff

Awards and Opportunities:

• Gruber Foundation for Justice Prize
• Martin Ennals Award
• Resources for Scholars in Danger

Online Publications:

• Africa
• Asia
• Eurasia
• Latin America
• MENA
• Multi-regional

Internet Spotlight:

• Guide to Twitter Activism
• Introduction to Facebook Activism
• Network overload: The burden to deal with too many social network sites
• Potential Channels for Mobile Services
• State of the Blogosphere 2009

Research Tip:

• The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law Online Library

TOP

Awards and Opportunities:

Gruber Foundation for Justice Prize. The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation's Justice Prize honours individuals who have advanced the cause of justice as delivered through the legal system. The award is intended to both acknowledge individual efforts and encourage further advancements toward bringing about a fundamentally just world. The prize -- a gold medal and an unrestricted $500,000 cash award -- is an international award presented annually. Recipients are selected by a distinguished panel of international legal experts from nominations that are received from around the world. Nominations may be submitted by individuals, organisations or institutions that are active in or have an appreciation for the theory and practice of justice. Self-nominations are not accepted. All nominations materials must be submitted in English. Application Deadline: 15 December 2009.
Martin Ennals Award. The Martin Ennals Foundation is seeking nominations for its 2010 award for human rights defenders. The application deadline is 9 December 2009. The award is given annually to individuals or organisations that have demonstrated an exceptional record of combating human rights violations by courageous and innovative means. Winners are chosen by an international jury made up of 10 leading human rights NGOS, including Human Rights Watch. The award is named after Martin Ennals (1927-1991), the first ever secretary-general of Amnesty International. To nominate someone or get more information, go to http://www.martinennalsaward.org/en/nomination/index.html or email: info@martinennalsaward.org.
Resources for Scholars in Danger. Are you a scholar, academic or journalist who is attacked because of your words, your ideas or your place in society? These two organizations can help. Scholars at Risk, an international network of universities and colleges responding to these attacks, promotes academic freedom and defends the human rights of scholars and their communities worldwide. The network provides sanctuary through temporary academic positions to professors, lecturers, researchers and other intellectuals who suffer threats in their home country.

Online Publications:

Africa:
Citizenship Law in Africa. Source: Soros Foundation. Statelessness and discriminatory citizenship practices underlie and exacerbate tensions in many regions of Africa, according to this report released by the Open Society Justice Initiative and the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project.
Democracy's Achilles Heel or, How to Win an Election without Really Trying. Source: Centre for the Study of African Economies, Department of Economics, Oxford. This paper investigates the efficacy of illicit electoral tactics and the characteristics which make a society prone to such tactics.
Guinea: Military Rule Must End. Source: International Crisis Group. This report focuses on the events of 28 September – when security forces killed at least 160 people in a crackdown on opposition to the military regime – and their implications for the stability of the country and the sub-region. It discusses dangerous fractures within the military and signs that various members are raising ethnic militias, warns that Guineans will not accept an attempt by the army to remain in power and calls for the end of military rule and a re-opening of the democratic transition process.
Understanding the Armed Groups of the Niger Delta. Source: Council on Foreign Relations. Nigeria's underdeveloped but oil-rich Niger Delta region currently is the site of a crippling insurgency. Fueled by a complex mixture of protest, crime, and political corruption, the network of armed groups that create this instability pose serious problems both for Abuja and for oil-importing countries across the globe. This Working Paper provides insights into these militias' origins, characteristics, and interactions with one another.
Imagining the Election: NDI Report Explores Attitudes About 2010 Sudan Vote. Source: National Democratic Institute. This report on public opinion in Sudan, explores what citizens in Southern Sudan and the three areas know and expect of the country's planned 2010 parliamentary and presidential elections. Based on 78 focus group discussions with 964 citizens in Southern Sudan, Abyei, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, Imagining the Election finds considerable gaps in the public's knowledge of the upcoming poll.
The Successful Ghana Election of 2008 – a Convenient Myth? Ethnicity in Ghana's Elections Revisited. Source: Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. Ghana's 2008 elections have been hailed by national and international observers as a model for Africa. This perception has prevailed despite persistent concerns about "ethnic block voting" and electoral fraud. Electoral malpractice and vote rigging along ethnic lines in Ghana's virtual two party system could regain decisive importance as a "third force" that could tip the balance in future, possibly coming to represent an even more important factor than the smaller opposition parties. Unfortunate diplomatic and technocratic biases in election monitoring, combined with a reluctance on the part of the responsible authorities to investigate irregularities in what appears to be a long history of fraudulent "ethnic block voting", amounts to a dangerous time bomb of unresolved conflict which could explode in future elections.
Struggles for Citizenship in Africa. Source: Soros Foundation. This book documents the dire consequences of pervasive citizenship discrimination across the continent. Millions of people living in Africa find themselves nonpersons in the only states they have ever known. Because they are not recognized as citizens, they cannot get their children registered at birth; they cannot access state health services; they cannot obtain employment without a work permit; and if they leave the country they may not be able to return. Most of all, they cannot vote, stand for public office, or work for state institutions.
Votes and Violence in Nigeria Source: Improving Institutions for Pro-Poor Growth. In the first study of its kind, the Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE) evaluated strategies developed by ActionAid International Nigeria (AAIN) to counteract the use of violence to intimidate voters. The evaluation showed that these strategies were effective. The strategies had an effect on the voters' directly approached by the campaigners. The research showed that AAIN campaign also had an effect on those voters' perceptions who lived in the campaign area but were not directly approached by the campaigners. The campaign was most effective for the poorer sections of Nigerian society.
Asia:
Disaggregating the Pakistani Taliban: Does the good, the bad and the ugly Taliban distinction represent a failed policy? Source: Danish Institute for International Studies. Discussions about a possible dialogue with Taliban have primarily focused on Afghan Taliban. However, many of the problems that NATO troops in Afghanistan are facing originate in the militant spillover from Pakistan.
Journey to the Heart of Internet Censorship [China]. Source: Reporters without Borders. In partnership with Reporters Without Borders and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a Chinese Internet expert working in IT industry has produced an exclusive study on the key mechanism of the Chinese official system of online censorship, surveillance and propaganda. The author prefers to remain anonymous.
Pakistan: Countering Militancy in FATA. Source: International Crisis Group. This report examines the Talibanisation in FATA, and argues that only reforms that encourage political diversity, enhance economic opportunity, and guarantee civil and political rights will address the problem. So far, short-sighted military policies have aggravated the conflict's impact on inhabitants and fuelled Islamic militancy. The consequences are dramatic: over one million people, i.e. one third of FATA's population, have been displaced, and the numbers are growing. Militancy and heavy-handed military force have destroyed an already deficient infrastructure and hi ndered business opportunities.
Shades of Red: China's Debate over North Korea. Source: International Crisis Group. This report examines current Chinese policy toward Pyongyang in the wake of North Korea's latest round of provocations, including missile launches, the withdrawal from the Six-Party-Talks, and the 25 May nuclear test. These events, together with succession worries, drew out an unusually public, and critical, discussion in China about its ties with North Korea.
Survey of blocked Uyghur websites shows Xinjiang still cut off from the world. Source: Reporters without Borders. Reporters Without Borders has surveyed access to websites dedicated to the Uyghur community, including sites in the Uyghur language, in Mandarin and sometimes in English. These sites, operated by Uyghurs for Uyghurs, are for the most part inaccessible both to Internet users based in Xinjiang and those abroad. More than 85 per cent of the surveyed sites were blocked, censored or otherwise unreachable.
Eurasia:
Assessment of Barriers to Roma Political Participation in Romania (also available in Romanian). Source: National Democratic Institute (NDI). Romania has made definite progress in integrating Roma into the country's political life, but there are still significant barriers that require attention before Roma can be considered full and active participants in the country's political system, according to the findings of a new report.
Bosnia After Dayton. Source: National Democratic Institute (NDI). A new report on the democratic transition in Bosnia-Herzegovina highlights the country's post-war and post-communist legacies. It notes that governmental reforms under discussion, while critical, are not sufficient to address the challenges that Bosnia's political institutions and civil society must tackle to put the country firmly on a democratic path.
Model for a New Era in U.S.-Russian Civil Society Relations. Source: CSIS. What would a new approach to civil society engagement look like, and how would it be different from previous models given the notable asymmetries that exist in the respective civil societies? In this policy memo, Sarah Mendelson suggests U.S. government-funded efforts ought to shift from “democracy assistance” (sometimes referred to as “technical assistance”)—where Americans go to Russia to help teach and train—to a new model of peer-to-peer engagement—where Americans who work on relevant issues in the United States come together periodically with Russians who work on similar issues to share best practices, explore common problems, and where practical, undertake joint projects.
Moldova's Response to Police Violence During the April 2009 Post-Election Demonstrations. Source: Soros Foundation. This report documents personal accounts of people who suffered beatings, sleep deprivation and verbal abuse at the hands of police after the April demonstrations. This report is the most extensive collection of information available to date on the number of individuals police apprehended during the April events.
Latin America:
Change in Our Interest: Travel, Trade and Improved Relations with Cuba. Source: Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). The information included in this congressional education packet documents how existing restrictions on travel and trade harm the national interests of the United States, and why reforming this policy is consistent with our values, our economic interests and efforts to improve the U.S. image abroad.
DR-CAFTA and Workers' Rights: Moving from Paper to Practice. Source: Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). This year, the 111th Congress and the Obama Administration are preparing to move forward on pending trade agreements with Panama, Colombia and South Korea. Passage of these trade agreements have stalled due to a variety of concerns including labor rights practices, especially in Colombia and Panama. The current discussion is on charting a course of action for governments prior to a vote in the U.S. Congress on the trade agreements such as establishing reasonable and timely benchmarks that demonstrate improvements in a given area and authorizing an international body to monitor compliance.
Education and Democratic Preferences. Source: Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). This paper examines the causal link between education and democracy. Motivated by a model whereby educated individuals are in a better position to assess the effects of public policies and hence favor democracy where their opinions matter, the empirical analysis uses World Values Surveys to study the link between education and democratic attitudes. Controlling for a variety of characteristics, the paper finds that higher education levels tend to result in prodemocracy views.
Political Institutions, Intertemporal Cooperation, and the Quality of Policies. Source: Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). While economists have tended to focus on specific public policies when developing recommendations, the achievement of welfare objectives might depend more on the quality of policies than their content. This paper develops several measures of the qualities of policies across countries, arguing that the quality of public policies depends on each polity's ability to strike intertemporal transactions necessary to develop and sustain effective policies. The analytical framework developed here indicates that this ability depends on several characteristics of political institutions, such as congressional capabilities, judicial independence, and bureaucratic independence and professionalism.
Protect and Serve? The Status of Police Reform in Central America Source: Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). This report paints a portrait of the police in Central America today. It draws on interviews conducted by in-country experts with government officials, current and former police, representatives of international aid agencies, and civil society leaders in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Beginning with the reforms that emerged from the peace and political transition processes in the region, the report analyzes the current state of police reform processes, particularly in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, with a lesser focus on Nicaragua.
Social Mobility in Latin America: A Review of Existing Evidence. Source: Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). This paper reviews evidence on social mobility in Latin America. Several studies have used data sets that collect intergenerational socio economic information. The data, though limited, suggest that social mobility is low in the region, even when compared with low social mobility developed countries like the United States and United Kingdom, with high levels of immobility at the lower and upper tails of the income distribution. While Latin America has improved education mobility in recent decades, which may have translated into higher mobility for younger cohorts, the region still presents, except for Chile, lower education mobility than in developed countries.
Trafficking in Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean. Source: Congressional Research Service Trafficking in persons (TIP) for the purpose of exploitation is a lucrative criminal activity that is of major concern to the United States and the international community. According to the most recent U.S. State Department estimates, roughly 800,000 people are trafficked across borders each year. If trafficking within countries is included in the total world figures, official U.S. estimates are that some 2 to 4 million people are trafficked annually.
MENA:
Afghanistan's Security Environment. Source: GAO. This report provides updated information to an earlier GAO report on (1) the security situation as gauged by trends in enemy-initiated attacks, (2) challenges for U.S. reconstruction efforts posed by security conditions, and (3) the recent increase in U.S. and coalition troop presence.
Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive Intercommunication for Knowledge. Source: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This report emphasises two central and mutually dependent premises. The first is the connection between knowledge, development and freedom. The second is the close relationship between the demands of development and the building of the knowledge society.
Human Rights Education in the School Systems of Europe, Central Asia and North America: A Compendium of Good Practice. Source HREA. Designed for primary and secondary schools, teacher training institutions and other learning settings, the new tool, which collects 101 exemplary practices from Central Asia, Europe and North America, is a valuable resource for teachers and education policymakers. It provides resource materials relevant to key elements for successful human rights education, including 1) laws, guidelines and standards; 2) learning environment; 3) teaching and learning tools; 4) professional development for educators, and 5) evaluation.
Media for Next Generation Peacebuilding in Iraq. Source: United States Institute for Peace (USIP). In order to address some of the challenges facing youth in Iraq, USIP and its Iraqi partners created a multimedia program that provides Iraqi teenagers with tools that can help them grow into independent, empowered citizens within a complex society. In April 2009, USIP's Center of Innovation for Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding organized an expert working group in Erbil, Iraq to discuss various peace media programming relevant for Iraqi youths. This report offers an introduction to USIP's youth media project, a summary of an expert working group and the next steps in developing the program designed to help Iraqi teenagers in becoming active contributors to peace in Iraq.
In Middle East, bloggers face attack. Source: Committee to Protect Journalists. Blogging is the crucial front in the struggle for freedom of expression in the region, CPJ says. From Iran to Tunisia, authorities rewrite laws and deploy technology to block online reporting.
Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan: Hamas in Ascendance. Source: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. In early September, three senior leaders of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood (MB) resigned from the organization's executive bureau after it voted to dissolve the MB political department -- one of the few remaining components of the organization controlled by moderates. The resignations were a protest against not only the executive bureau's decision, but also the MB's increasingly close affiliation with Hamas. Today, the Jordanian MB is facing an unprecedented internal crisis, pitting the traditional moderate East Bank leadership -- Jordanians who are not originally Palestinian -- against the powerful pro-Hamas Palestinian-led element.
Quds Day in Iran: Velvet Revolution Trumps Nuclear Negotiations. Source: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. While the United States is concentrating on the G-20 summit and the October 1 meeting with the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Iranian attention has been focused on the potentially destabilizing protests planned for September 18, Quds Day. This critical difference of agenda -- with Iran focused more on its domestic turmoil than on simmering international issues -- will be a major complicating factor in negotiations between the international community and Iran in the coming weeks.
Multi-regional:
2009 Report on International Religious Freedom. Source: U.S. Department of State. The International Religious Freedom report is submitted to Congress annually by the Department of State in compliance with Section 102(b) of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. This report supplements the most recent Human Rights Reports by providing additional detailed information with respect to matters involving international religious freedom. It includes individual country chapters on the status of religious freedom worldwide.
Anti-Corruption Plain Language Guide. Source: Transparency International. The guide provides standardized, easy-to-understand definitions for 45 key terms commonly used by the anti-corruption movement – from ‘access to information' to ‘whistle blowing'. Each term includes a practical example of how TI approaches these issues and helpful links for further research.
Democracy in Development - Global consultations on the EU's role in democracy building. Source: International IDEA. The report is the result of global/regional consultations with the EU's partner organizations in Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Arab world, led by International IDEA and sponsored by Sweden, aimed at producing a deeper understanding of how the EU can best assist democracy building efforts worldwide.
Digital Media in Conflict-Prone Societies. Source: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA). This report examines the potential for digital media to foster peace or to foment violence in conflict-prone societies. Today media affect war more than ever before. Digital media technologies—particularly participatory, networked tools—have increased communication and information dissemination in conflict settings, affecting all sides and allowing any citizen to be a producer as well as a consumer of news. These new tools, Sigal says in his report, can be used to build communication systems that encourage dialogue and nonviolent political solutions.
Experts Recommend Key Steps Toward Preventing State Fragility. Source: Stanley Foundation. This report, which presents a preventive approach to the challenge of fragile states was the focus of the 50th annual Strategy for Peace Conference recently organized by the Stanley Foundation.
Foundations' Year-end Outlook for Giving and the Sector. Source: Foundation Center. Foundation giving will likely decline by more than 10 percent in 2009, closer to the higher end of the 8 to 13 percent range estimated by the Foundation Center earlier this year. According to September 2009 survey findings released today in Foundations' Year-end Outlook for Giving and the Sector, foundation giving will also decline further in 2010, as previously predicted by the Center.
Human Rights Education in the School Systems of Europe, Central Asia and North America: A Compendium of Good Practice. Source HREA. Designed for primary and secondary schools, teacher training institutions and other learning settings, the new tool, which collects 101 exemplary practices from Central Asia, Europe and North America, is a valuable resource for teachers and education policymakers. It provides resource materials relevant to key elements for successful human rights education, including 1) laws, guidelines and standards; 2) learning environment; 3) teaching and learning tools; 4) professional development for educators, and 5) evaluation.
Press Freedom Index 2009. Source: Reporters Without Borders. The index is compiled every year on the basis of questionnaires that are completed by hundreds of journalists and media experts around the world. This year's index reflects press freedom violations that took place between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009.
Problem-Driven Governance and Political Economy Analysis. Source: The World Bank. This is a reference document pulling together key ideas and lessons learned from existing applications of governance and political economy analysis from around the Bank and beyond.
Tyrants on Trial: Keeping Order in the Courtroom. Source: Soros Foundation. This report examines the difficulties of ensuring a fair trial when former leaders defend themselves, often by attacking the court while simultaneously treating it as a platform for lengthy espousals of their broad political and ideological views. The author, Patricia M. Wald, was chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and also served as a judge for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.